Combination beach towels and hand bags which attempt to facilitate traveling to and from the beach are known. One such combination hand bag and towel, or mat, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,111 to Hall. This combination handbag and mat is useful for traveling to and from the beach by reducing the number of separate items one must carry. For example, the handbag, sometimes called a totebag, is suitable for containing the towel and it has at least one pocket in which to place other personal items such as sunglasses and suntan lotion.
This Hall totebag, however, has drawbacks. One drawback is that the pocket for containing personal items is located on the outside of the bag. As such, the contents of the pocket can easily and undesirably be emptied when folding or placing the towel in the bag. As such, the user is sometimes forced to empty the pocket before inserting the towel into the bag.
A second drawback associated with this handbag is that the pocket extends only a short distance up a wall of the handbag. Consequently, the volume of the pocket is not as large as may be desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,668 to Grayek attempts to overcome some of the deficiencies of the prior art by disclosing pockets which extend the length of the handbag, as shown in FIG. 11 of the patent. The '668 patent has a drawback in that, when the towel is expanded into a position for a person to sit, the seams and the cords of the totebag are plainly noticeable, regardless of which side of the towel is placed adjacent to the beach or other surface, thus revealing to passersby the location of the totebag. As such, the location of valuable personal items such as keys and money can be revealed.
The known combination handbag and towels have a further drawback in that they are generally not used as advertising media in the fullest possible manner. Because at least some beaches tend to be very crowded during the summer and beachgoers oftentimes stay at the beach for long periods of time, advertisers are not taking the fullest possible advantage of every opportunity to display advertising.